The Farmer's Table BlogRecipes, Tips, & Tricks

​This weekMad Priest Coffee Roastershas a new coffee of the month. Each month or so Michael Rice has been featuring one of his coffees and the country it’s from, along with a recipe from that country. Mad Priest’s mission is to “craft good coffee, educate the curious, and champion the displaced”. The coffee/country/recipe combination is one of the ways they are doing that. This month’s country is Yemen, the coffee is a Mocca Sanani, and the recipe is for Mutafayyah.

From Mad Priest about Yemen:3.1+ million people displaced (since 2015http://www.unocha.org/yemen)/ 186,687 people have fled to neighboring countries (http://data.unhcr.org/yemen/regional.php)Yemen has long been the poorest country in the Arab world, and now because of ongoing war and famine, the UNHCR estimates that over 82 percent of the population (21.2 million people) require urgent humanitarian assistance. One child diesevery ten minutesdue to starvation and malnutrition, according to UNICEF. The Houthi rebels and the Yemeni government have been fighting since 2004, but after major advances by the Houthi, a coalition of Arab states led by Saudi Arabia launched a military campaign against them in 2015. To make matters more complicated, many other major foreign powers, Al-Queda, and ISIL all have a strong presence in Yemen and contribute to different sides of the fighting. This outrageous situation has now displaced well over 3 million people, and many are making the dangerous crossing to the Horn of Africa despite the wars going on there.Though Yemen is known as the birthplace of coffee cultivation, the production of coffee has almost come to a complete halt in the midst of the current war, chaos, and famine. But the Yemeni coffee plants have amazingly developed coping mechanisms, like disease and drought resistance. And the farmers that tend them are incredibly resilient and persistent, too...and hopeful about the future of coffee in Yemen when the conflict is over.Yemeni food is quite different from Middle Eastern food, in a category all its own, with a just little Ottoman and Indian influence. Meat, vegetables, and bread or rice make up most meals, and the biggest meal of the day is lunch. Alright let’s start this delicious dish from the coast of Yemen… “Bismillah.”

What you need:2 salmon fillets1/4 tsp of fenugreek seeds2 tbsp of oil3 cloves of garlic, crushed2 green serrano peppers, slit lengthwise and halvedRed chile sauce to taste1/2 tsp of ground cumin1/2 tsp of ground coriandersalt to taste2 tomatoes, peeled and diced1 and 1/2 tbsp of tomato pastecilantro for garnishWhat to do:Place a frying pan on medium high heat and add the oil. When it is hot, add the fish and the fenugreek seeds. Let it cook for one minute, then add the garlic, green serrano pepper, red chile sauce, cumin, coriander, salt, diced tomatoes and tomato paste. Add 1/4 cup water and shake the frying pan so everything is evenly spread out, or gently mix with a spoon (but be careful to not break the fish. Leave on medium low heat until the sauce thickens. Garnish with cilantro and serve with flat bread or on a bed of rice.
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